Very early this morning I wrote a contract for a buyer client looking to purchase a short sale condo in the Buckhead area of Atlanta. Seeing that the listing was a short sale, I thought 'here's an opportunity to save some trees and use the electronic signature' available from my MLS. The electronic signature system 'Authentisign' has been a wonderful tool to use in the recent months. The cost is included in the fees I pay for the MLS, so it made good financial sense and 'green' sense to use it in my business. Plus my clients like it and find it pretty easy to use.
So I inform my buyer client that we can use electronic signature and save some time and effort. She's very excited as she is conscious of the environment. I complete the offer docs and submit them to her for signing. She signs them right away via her email address. I sign last, and I put all the docs together with the pre-approval letter. Then off to the listing agent via email.
Ten minutes later I'm checking my voicemail and there is a call from the listing agent. 'I got your offer, but the seller's bank will not accept electronic signature. Can you resend with wet signatures?' WHAT - you gotta be kidding me? In this day and age of mobile banking from my Android phone, Chase Bank will not accept electronic signatures on real estate documents.
O.K. so when will Chase get on board? And then there is HUD, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac also on the 'wet signature' boat. Yet we, the general public,, have all of this discussion about environmental concerns and saving trees. Electronic signature has such potential to help us save more trees and cut down on expenses associated with the cost of paperwork. Plus we could be doing something else with our time besides printing documents, signing, scanning and faxing back and forth only to hear the closing attorney say 'I can't read the contract because it's been faxed so many times. Does anyone have an original?'
Chase Bank if you are reading this post make some changes to your policies and get on board with electronic signature. Save some trees and prepare for the future.
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